Warhammer Online Is Not Going Free to Play

Game will receive new content after The Old Republic launch

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning might have launched with high hopes and talk of World of Warcraft slaying, but since then the game has lost players and seemed to be destined to be turned into a free-to-play project to get increase gamer numbers.

At the GDC Online event Eugene Evans, who is the leader of the Mythic division of BioWare, has answered a question about how the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic would impact Warhammer Online, saying, “All of these games appeal to different people for different reasons. I’m very proud to be able to say that I’m running the studio that’s run Ultima Online for as long as it has – 14 years. Dark Age of Camelot just celebrated 10 years.”

The Mythic executive also talked about the free-to-play business model, adding, “We believe in the community of players who are playing Age of Reckoning. Yes, we could have attracted a lot of players to it, but it’s unclear how long you’ll keep them. We wanted to support our game as it currently exists.”

The executive did not offer any information on what new content Warhammer Online players might get in the near term.

Meanwhile those who are not interested in investing time in the full MMO always have the option of getting into something like Wrath of Heroes, the spin-off arena battle game that is using a freemium model and a simplified set of game mechanics.

Wrath of Heroes does not yet have an official launch date.

For BioWare the big launch of the fall is Star Wars: The Old Republic, which will be released officially just before Christmas of this year.

The game has used up a lot of resources and the developers will probably need to spend more time soon after launch to make sure that it runs smooth and to prepare more content.